Daimler to invest €20bn in battery cells

Daimler has set out plans to buy €20 billion of battery cells saying: “We are systematically pushing forward with the transformation into the electric future of our company.”

It plans to have 130 electric variants at Mercedes-Benz Cars by 2022, and has recently launched all-electric vans and trucks.

It expects sales of battery-electric cars are to increase to 15-25 per cent of total unit sales by 2025 – depending on individual customer preferences and the development of the public infrastructure.

It is investing €1 billion in battery production. The global battery production network of Mercedes-Benz Cars will consist of eight factories on three continents. The first factory in Kamenz is already in series production and the second factory there will start series production at the beginning of 2019. Two more factories will be built in Stuttgart-Untertürkheim, one at the company’s Sindelfingen site, and one each at the sites in Beijing (China), Bangkok (Thailand) and Tuscaloosa (USA).

Mercedes-Benz Vans is electrifying its entire fleet. Deliveries of the all-electric mid-size van eVito, started in November 2018. The eSprinter will follow in the second half of 2019.

Daimler launched its first all-electric truck, the Fuso eCanter last year, while the eActros was unveiled in June 2018. In September, Mercedes-Benz Trucks handed over the first of a total of ten eActros trucks to a customer for use in everyday operations.

Daimler has named its strategy “CASE”. The letters stand for the fields of networking (Connected), autonomous driving (Autonomous), flexible use (Shared & Services) and electric drive systems (Electric).